Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Audiobook7 hours
America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir
Written by Boyah J. Farah
Narrated by Preston Butler III
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
NAACP Image Award Nominee · NPR Best Book of 2022
A searing memoir of American racism from a Somalian-American who survived hardships in his birth country only to experience firsthand the dehumanization of Blacks in his adopted land, the United States.
“No one told me about America.”
Born in Somalia and raised in a valley among nomads, Boyah Farah grew up with a code of male bravado that helped him survive deprivation, disease, and civil war. Arriving in America, he believed that the code that had saved him would help him succeed in this new country. But instead of safety and freedom, Boyah found systemic racism, police brutality, and intense prejudice in all areas of life, including the workplace. He learned firsthand not only what it meant to be an African in America, but what it means to be African American. The code of masculinity that shaped generations of men in his family could not prepare Farah for the painful realities of life in the United States.
Lyrical yet unsparing, America Made Me a Black Man is the first book-length examination of American racism from an African outsider’s perspective. With a singular poetic voice brimming with imagery, Boyah challenges us to face difficult truths about the destructive forces that threaten Black lives and attempts to heal a fracture in Black men’s identity.
Author
Boyah J. Farah
Boyah J. Farah’s writing has been featured in the Guardian, the Harvard Transition, Grub Daily, and Truthdig, and on the Scheer Intelligence podcast at KCRW. He is the winner of Salon’s best essay of 2017. His essays have also appeared in Harvard’s Kennedy School Review, Pangyrus magazine, and the Huffington Post. He recently founded the Abaadi Center in Garowe, Somalia, which offers instruction in English, Math, and Science to students age thirteen to twenty-four.
Related to America Made Me a Black Man
Related audiobooks
That Mean Old Yesterday Standing Our Ground: The Triumph of Faith Over Gun Violence: A Mother's Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Women Will Save the World: An Anthem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor's Fight for Fairness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Her Honor: My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Say It Louder!: Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Can't Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fire Shut Up In My Bones: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Negroes at Harvard: The Class of 1963 and the 18 Young Men Who Changed Harvard Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Fight Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Seen and Unseen: Technology, Social Media, and the Fight for Racial Justice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Black on Black: On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miss Chloe: A Memoir of a Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We’re Better Than This: Young Readers’ Edition: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spectacle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Vanishing Country: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Making of White Power and Wealth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Personal Memoirs For You
The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sociopath: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Stand Your Ground: A Black Feminist Reckoning with America’s Gun Problem Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Drain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
Dr. Allyson Hobbs of Stanford, on Racial Passing: Allyson Hobbs, an Assistant Professor in the Depa… 0% found this document usefulIt’s Not Just the Dukes of Hazard (w/ S.A. Cosby) 100% found this document usefulAll the White Friends I Couldn't Keep w/ Andre Henry 0% found this document usefulIbram X. Kendi - "Four Hundred Souls" 0% found this document usefulSide Effects of One Drop (with Dr. Yaba Blay) 0% found this document usefulFannie Lou Hamer and the meaning of freedom: How a former sharecropper disrupted American politics 0% found this document usefulEp. 204 A Journey South with Imani Perry 0% found this document usefulA Conversation With Author Kiese Laymon 100% found this document usefulAuthor Karla Cornejo Villavicencio Talks 'The Undocumented Americans' 0% found this document usefulWhite Fragility, White Women's Tears, and Dismantling White Supremacy: A primer on white fragility. 0% found this document useful'I Am Debra Lee: A Memoir' recounts triumphs and challenges as the former CEO of BET 0% found this document useful'When Crack Was King' chronicles the misunderstood history of the crack epidemic 0% found this document usefulFinding Beauty In The Shadows with Kiese Laymon: Alicia Garza welcomes award winning author Kiese Laymon. 0% found this document useful#206: Sisterhood Heals with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford 0% found this document usefulThe Life and Short Stories of Diane Oliver (Part One) 0% found this document useful
Related articles
5 Books To Read On Social Justice That Go Beyond The Instructive NPRArticle
5 Books To Read On Social Justice That Go Beyond The Instructive
Jun 18, 2021
6 min read'The Whiteness Of Wealth' Probes Why Black Americans Pay Higher Taxes NPRArticle
'The Whiteness Of Wealth' Probes Why Black Americans Pay Higher Taxes
May 17, 2021
7 min readIn Lost Essay, Langston Hughes Recounts Meeting A Young Chain Gang Runaway NPRArticle
In Lost Essay, Langston Hughes Recounts Meeting A Young Chain Gang Runaway
Jul 17, 2019
3 min readProdigy And The America That Raised Him NPRArticle
Prodigy And The America That Raised Him
Jun 23, 2017
5 min readThe Personal Cost of Black Success The AtlanticArticle
The Personal Cost of Black Success
Oct 3, 2018
9 min readTrump And The N Word The AtlanticArticle
Trump And The N Word
Aug 16, 2018
3 min readBobby Seale TIMEArticle
Bobby Seale
Oct 8, 2016
The Black Panthers co-founder, whose new book marks the 50th anniversary of the party’s establishment, talks about guns, Trump and Obama
2 min readWhat A Racist Slur Does To The Body The AtlanticArticle
What A Racist Slur Does To The Body
Oct 22, 2022
5 min readI’m Still Saying Her Name The AtlanticArticle
I’m Still Saying Her Name
Sep 15, 2020
3 min readYes, Women Could Vote After The 19th Amendment — But Not All Women. Or Men NPRArticle
Yes, Women Could Vote After The 19th Amendment — But Not All Women. Or Men
Aug 26, 2020
5 min readIn 'Better, Not Bitter,' One Of The Central Park Five Tells His Own Story NPRArticle
In 'Better, Not Bitter,' One Of The Central Park Five Tells His Own Story
May 18, 2021
4 min read‘I Hear The Screams’: 107-year-old Survivor Of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Testifies To Congress In Call For Justice The IndependentArticle
‘I Hear The Screams’: 107-year-old Survivor Of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Testifies To Congress In Call For Justice
May 20, 2021
Moments after falling asleep on 31 May, 1921, seven-year-old Viola Fletcher was awakened by her family and told to leave her home in the Greenwood neighbourhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Outside, a white mob drove thousands of Black residents from their ho
3 min read'Honor' Is A Searing Meditation On The Meaning Of Dignity In A Dehumanizing World NPRArticle
'Honor' Is A Searing Meditation On The Meaning Of Dignity In A Dehumanizing World
Jan 26, 2022
4 min readAfter Publisher Pulls Book By White Professor On ‘Trap Feminism,’ Founder Speaks Out Los Angeles TimesArticle
After Publisher Pulls Book By White Professor On ‘Trap Feminism,’ Founder Speaks Out
Apr 19, 2022
3 min readChana Joffe-Walt: Nice White Parents Guernica MagazineArticle
Chana Joffe-Walt: Nice White Parents
Sep 15, 2020
9 min readWriting a Feminist Novel With a Man's Point of View The AtlanticArticle
Writing a Feminist Novel With a Man's Point of View
Mar 20, 2018
10 min read'How The Word Is Passed' Teaches The Importance Of Reckoning With History NPRArticle
'How The Word Is Passed' Teaches The Importance Of Reckoning With History
Jun 2, 2021
6 min readThe South Got Something To Say: A Celebration Of Southern Rap NPRArticle
The South Got Something To Say: A Celebration Of Southern Rap
Aug 3, 2020
Our list of the best songs, albums and mixtapes by Southern rappers is a celebration that recenters the South as a creative center of hip-hop and honors the region for all that it has given to us.
13 min readYour Pick Me Ups Pick Me UpArticle
Your Pick Me Ups
Oct 28, 2021
2 min readWhat Do Meghan Markle And Chicago Woman Who Wrote 'Passing' Have In Common? Chicago TribuneArticle
What Do Meghan Markle And Chicago Woman Who Wrote 'Passing' Have In Common?
Feb 28, 2018
CHICAGO - Nella Larsen was a mystery in life, and a mystery after her death in 1964. According to biographers, when she died her half sister inherited the $35,000 that remained in Larsen's savings, then said she didn't know she had a half sister. Whi
7 min readThe FBI's War on Black-Owned Bookstores The AtlanticArticle
The FBI's War on Black-Owned Bookstores
Feb 19, 2018
6 min readThe South Got Something To Say: A Celebration Of Southern Rap (2000-2004) NPRArticle
The South Got Something To Say: A Celebration Of Southern Rap (2000-2004)
Aug 3, 2020
Our list of the best songs, albums and mixtapes by Southern rappers is a celebration that recenters the South as a creative center of hip-hop and honors the region for all that it has given to us.
25 min readYaa Gyasi On The Mysteries Of Faith And Reason The AtlanticArticle
Yaa Gyasi On The Mysteries Of Faith And Reason
Aug 14, 2020
4 min readAfrica RISING South African Home OwnerArticle
Africa RISING
May 11, 2020
3 min readThe Renaissance Is Black TIMEArticle
The Renaissance Is Black
Feb 5, 2021
9 min readIn 'Four Hundred Souls,' 90 Writers Tell Their Stories Of 4 Centuries Of African America NPRArticle
In 'Four Hundred Souls,' 90 Writers Tell Their Stories Of 4 Centuries Of African America
Feb 18, 2021
8 min readBlackness in Bedlam: On Toni Morrison’s ‘The Origin of Others’ The MillionsArticle
Blackness in Bedlam: On Toni Morrison’s ‘The Origin of Others’
Sep 14, 2017
It can be incapacitating, seeing your suffering in the mirror. The post Blackness in Bedlam: On Toni Morrison’s ‘The Origin of Others’ appeared first on The Millions.
9 min readThe Persistent Joy of Black Mothers The AtlanticArticle
The Persistent Joy of Black Mothers
Aug 11, 2021
8 min readReagan Used Her, The Country Hated Her. Decades Later, The Welfare Queen Of Chicago Refuses To Go Away Chicago TribuneArticle
Reagan Used Her, The Country Hated Her. Decades Later, The Welfare Queen Of Chicago Refuses To Go Away
Jun 12, 2019
9 min readLatinos Can Be White Supremacists The AtlanticArticle
Latinos Can Be White Supremacists
May 17, 2023
4 min read
Related categories
Reviews for America Made Me a Black Man
Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
5 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The poetic and inner pictures are amazing! You will find it hard to stop listening and wanting more. The writer touches a mutual understanding of a black man in America.